STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 81 



in beariDg that is said to be twenty years old. They show, some- 

 thing like myself, the infirmity of age. A gentleman in Brewer 

 asked me what ailed his fruit trees. I said, "You have starved 

 them to death; you don't feed them." He says "The idea of 

 feeding a tree !" I said, "If you prefer to have them bear leaves 

 instead of fruit, you can." Some think, if you stick a tree in the 

 ground it will do, and leave it to live or die. 



Ques. We have a clay soil and underdrain as far as we can. 

 We bought some plum trees but they never have fruit ? 



Ans. In that case, I should try ashes and bone meal as a fer- 

 tilizer. When I fix it in large quantities I take a barrel of bone 

 meal and four barrels hard wood ashes and fill a hogshead ;— a 

 layer of ashes and a layer of bone meal, an inch of each ; — then fill 

 the' hogshead with water and let it work through. After it has 

 stood ten days I shovel it out and mix with dry muck. This mix-, 

 ture you can throw around your trees. 



STRAWBERRY AND SMALL FRUIT CULTURE. 

 By S. H. Dawes, Harrison. 



My text to-day is ' ' Strawberry and Small Fruit Culture ." I am not 

 going to preach. I have not been installed for that purpose. I 

 only have a license from our honorable Secretary to give you a little 

 of my experience and observation since I have been in the business. 

 I do not claim to be any authority whatever in pomological matters, 

 and can only tell you my mode of cultivation. I shall call your 

 attention mostly to the strawberry, for it is the king among small 

 fruits. Beecher said that "God could make a better berry than the 

 strawberry, but He never did." I don't think He ever will till we 

 learn how to cultivate and handle that noble fruit better than we 

 do now. 



Ten years ago I commenced in a small way to raise small fruits, and 

 after fooling round three or four years in the garden, orchard and 

 beside the fence, just long enough to find out that I did not know 

 anything about the business, I thought I could see that there was 

 money in it if rightly managed . I did what I would recommend every 

 one to do. I selected the best acre of land I had that was adapted 



